Ebook: The Practice of Programming

I think this is a good book to read. Recall a joke about programming:
1. Learn all the theories about computer science.
2. Pick up a style.
3. Forget about all that and just hack.

This is a joke but often times quite true. However, to become a more complete programmer, one cannot omit either 1. or 2. and go directly to 3. In fact, if you do that, you are about to see your position being outsourced to other countries, because you are so replaceable that you do not have much to offer and everyone can do your job.

This book is about 2. in the joke, picking up a style. It is not about teaching you how to write a program in a specific language. It is, however, from a pair of masters' point of view, what programming is all about and how to write code in style so that it is simple, elegant and easy to maintain.

I will quote Stroustrup here that being able to write good code is much like being able to write good articles in any language, which has no fixed way of doing it. Some natural talent and personality possibly have something in the play.

This is a good book to read. But I think for a small book its size (<300 pages), it is expensive. Also, things they talk about become kind of trivia if you have a couple years of real experience.